The economic perspective on privacy presented in this paper resorts to an actor-centred approach deploying a cost-benefit analysis for the data subject and the data controller. In the course of this analysis a basic decision theoretic model is presented. Whereas the data subject faces the choice of “disclosing” or “retaining” personal information, the data controller has to consider the costs and benefits of collecting, aggregating, storing and processing data as well as of potential privacy breaches.